The inventive concept relates to integrated circuit (IC) protection technologies, and more particularly, to an IC protection circuit that may protect an IC from overvoltage or overcurrent, an IC protection method, and apparatuses having the IC protection circuit.
Electronic devices using a DC voltage as an operation voltage, for example, an integrated circuit (IC), includes a protection circuit to protect the electronic device from instantaneous overvoltage or static electricity. The protection circuit is disposed at an input stage of the electronic device and cuts off supply of instantaneous overvoltage or instantaneous overcurrent to the input stage so that a normal DC voltage may be supplied to the input stage. However, when the protection circuit is destroyed by the overvoltage or overcurrent, the protection circuit is not able to provide a normal DC voltage to the input stage of the electronic device so that the electronic device may malfunction or be permanently inoperative.